1 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:08,839 Speaker 1: The Thinking Atheist. It's not a person, it's a symbol, 2 00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:10,000 an idea. 3 00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:13,439 Speaker 2: The population of atheists this country is going through. 4 00:00:13,359 --> 00:00:18,920 Speaker 1: The rule, rejecting faith, pursuing knowledge, challenging the sacred. If 5 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:22,120 I tell the truth, it's because I tell the truth, 6 00:00:22,519 --> 00:00:23,160 not because. 7 00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:24,839 Speaker 2: I put my hand on a book and made a. 8 00:00:24,760 --> 00:00:28,839 Speaker 1: Wish and working together for a more rational world. 9 00:00:29,079 --> 00:00:32,359 Speaker 2: Take the risk of thinking. Feel so much more happiness. Truth, 10 00:00:32,399 --> 00:00:34,679 Fusian wisdom will come to you that way. 11 00:00:35,679 --> 00:00:43,520 Speaker 1: Assume nothing, question everything, and start thinking. This is the 12 00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:50,119 Thinking Atheist podcast hosted by Seth Andrews. 13 00:00:56,159 --> 00:00:59,119 Speaker 2: I had a choice to make today that we can 14 00:00:59,159 --> 00:01:06,000 do another of authoritarianism, the assault on the constitution, Christian 15 00:01:06,120 --> 00:01:10,359 Nationalism Project twenty twenty five, the lawlessness and the grift 16 00:01:10,439 --> 00:01:14,439 and the sociopathy, and you know, I just thought I 17 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:17,400 need a break. I've been talking to some friends of 18 00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:24,000 mine about how to cope and those of us, and 19 00:01:24,079 --> 00:01:26,200 I think you may be included. Those of us who 20 00:01:26,280 --> 00:01:31,480 are activated and concerned about all of this. We have 21 00:01:31,519 --> 00:01:35,000 a hard time disconnecting from it, and so it's a 22 00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:38,040 fire hose to the face every single day, and it 23 00:01:38,120 --> 00:01:41,480 just wears you down. You become exhausted in your heart 24 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:45,959 and your mind and your body, and self care I 25 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:50,159 think is hard for people like us. Every day we 26 00:01:50,359 --> 00:01:53,280 doom scroll the worst of the worst of the worst, 27 00:01:53,359 --> 00:01:57,319 and it takes a toll. And I think we are 28 00:01:57,400 --> 00:02:00,719 no good to anybody else if we are not caring 29 00:02:00,840 --> 00:02:04,879 for ourselves. I think it's the classic caregivers conundrum. You know, 30 00:02:05,959 --> 00:02:08,879 we often are so busy focused on the outside that 31 00:02:08,919 --> 00:02:12,960 we neglect the interior. And I've tried to make a 32 00:02:13,039 --> 00:02:17,840 point to not doom scroll as much, not lock my 33 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:20,560 eyes onto the headlines and see the worst of the 34 00:02:20,599 --> 00:02:23,199 worst and fall for every click baity thing. But I'm 35 00:02:23,199 --> 00:02:25,400 going to take some time and I am going to 36 00:02:25,599 --> 00:02:30,000 stop away and I am going to do self care, 37 00:02:30,159 --> 00:02:34,800 and I encourage you to do the same self care. 38 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:45,319 And this means sometimes fiviolity inconsequential stuff, the good stuff. 39 00:02:45,599 --> 00:02:48,240 And that's what this week is going to be. We're 40 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:52,439 going to learn things because hey, we're scientists, right, everybody 41 00:02:52,439 --> 00:02:55,560 can do science. We're going to expand our knowledge base 42 00:02:55,680 --> 00:02:59,080 and a general knowledge show and I do these from 43 00:02:59,199 --> 00:03:03,960 time time, So consider this good medicine. You're going to 44 00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:06,360 learn stuff, You're going to have some fun, and you 45 00:03:06,479 --> 00:03:10,360 might have some conversation pieces as you engage in discussion 46 00:03:10,479 --> 00:03:14,520 and discourse out there in your own life. Okay, we're 47 00:03:14,520 --> 00:03:19,039 going to talk about cap uccino and other coffee terms. 48 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:24,120 Where those terms come from? Why does our body sometimes 49 00:03:24,159 --> 00:03:27,039 feel like it's falling when we're going to sleep and 50 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:30,520 then we jerk away flopping around on the mattress like 51 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:34,159 a fish? Why does that happen? What's going on in 52 00:03:34,199 --> 00:03:38,599 the brain? There is a term for it and potential reason. 53 00:03:38,759 --> 00:03:43,120 Speaking of fish, why do we call misdirection in a 54 00:03:43,159 --> 00:03:47,960 story a red herring? We know it's misdirection, But where 55 00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:50,759 did the fish correlation come from? I'm going to get 56 00:03:50,759 --> 00:03:55,599 into that. Why does our skin itch? What causes an itch? 57 00:03:56,080 --> 00:04:01,759 Why do we call daytime cereals soap op bris? I've 58 00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:05,159 never questioned it. I just thought, oh, it's the daytime soaps. 59 00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:10,439 Why isn't a soap opera today? You are going to 60 00:04:10,639 --> 00:04:16,000 know the answer to this deep and probing question. Why 61 00:04:16,040 --> 00:04:18,439 do and I guess this is much more common in 62 00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:22,759 the UK and elsewhere. When people say goodbye, they don't 63 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:28,439 say goodbye, they say cheerio. Natalie and I hooked on 64 00:04:28,639 --> 00:04:33,360 a British television show. It's on Prime it's called the 65 00:04:33,560 --> 00:04:38,720 Yorkshire ve and it focuses on a veterinary practice. Actually, 66 00:04:38,759 --> 00:04:41,680 there are three of them in close proximity in the 67 00:04:41,879 --> 00:04:47,240 lovely countryside of Yorkshire and people just bring their animals 68 00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:53,879 into these lovely veterinarians and usually the animals get fixed. 69 00:04:54,680 --> 00:04:58,399 I mean, we watch this show. We're in season twelve. 70 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:02,000 I think they're up to four fourteen seasons. When we 71 00:05:02,079 --> 00:05:05,000 hit the last episode and we're caught up, there will 72 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:08,680 be grieving in this house. What are we gonna watch 73 00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:13,920 until season fifteen is released? We will grieve because it's 74 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:16,800 good medicine. We're sitting back, we're propped up in bed, 75 00:05:16,839 --> 00:05:19,480 the dog's in our lap. Maybe I'm munching on some popcorn, 76 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:23,560 and Natalie's got whatever. And oh look, somebody needs to 77 00:05:23,639 --> 00:05:27,959 pull a tooth on an alpaca. A cat has an 78 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:31,680 infected eye and can only see out of one side 79 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:35,600 of its little head. That's terrible. Can his eye sight 80 00:05:35,759 --> 00:05:40,600 be restored? There's a horse with the wonky foot, a 81 00:05:40,800 --> 00:05:43,720 cow that is lame. Somebody's got a chicken that ate 82 00:05:43,800 --> 00:05:46,639 too much corn feed and it's all jammed down in 83 00:05:46,680 --> 00:05:50,160 its body. So they gotta go. They gotta go and 84 00:05:50,199 --> 00:05:52,399 fix the chicken. I don't know how. I'm trying to remember. 85 00:05:52,439 --> 00:05:54,639 Did they open up the chicken. I think they opened 86 00:05:54,680 --> 00:05:59,480 the chicken's body. They anesthetize it and then they literally 87 00:05:59,519 --> 00:06:02,319 just yank all this stuff out of the chicken. Puppies 88 00:06:02,399 --> 00:06:06,000 last night there were puppies born. Somebody brought in this 89 00:06:06,199 --> 00:06:11,079 precious little frenchy. A French bulldog couldn't deliver naturally, so 90 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:14,480 the dog goes in for a cisarian and doctor Julian 91 00:06:14,879 --> 00:06:18,759 slices the dog open and outcome the cutest let all 92 00:06:18,839 --> 00:06:22,199 boppies you have ever said. Seven puppies and they're making 93 00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:25,439 that puppy sound that the lead, you know. They're whining 94 00:06:25,439 --> 00:06:28,120 and their little tongues are sticking on. Their eyes are closed, 95 00:06:28,399 --> 00:06:30,519 and I just want to hug them and squeeze them 96 00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:33,879 and take them all home and adopt them. This is 97 00:06:34,319 --> 00:06:39,639 what my heart needs the Yorkshire vet. And I'm just 98 00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:44,160 making that recommendation for free. But anyway, time and again, 99 00:06:44,199 --> 00:06:48,240 whenever the patient is leaving the vets or whoever, say 100 00:06:48,319 --> 00:06:52,079 cheerio and that means goodbye, have a good day. But 101 00:06:52,120 --> 00:06:56,000 where does cheerio come from? So much that you and 102 00:06:56,079 --> 00:06:59,560 I are going to learn the today. So let the 103 00:06:59,759 --> 00:07:10,000 entering and fun and lighthearted science begin. First off, I 104 00:07:10,040 --> 00:07:12,560 want to talk about a term that we use often. 105 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:17,639 We talk about people being in the lime lights, meaning 106 00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:22,000 that they are the focus of public attention. Right, Well, 107 00:07:22,079 --> 00:07:25,600 they were in the lime lights during this occasion or 108 00:07:25,639 --> 00:07:30,360 over this event or whatever. The lime light. Why do 109 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:35,079 we call it that? Well, let's find out. In eighteen sixteen, 110 00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:40,839 the British government was trying to survey Ireland for reference. 111 00:07:40,959 --> 00:07:45,560 Those surveyors were using the tall mountains as points of reference, 112 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:49,920 but there was a problem. Bad weather was common, lots 113 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:53,720 of rain, lots of clouds, and this reduced visibility. Sometimes 114 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:59,040 the surveyors couldn't see the mountains. Well. It was around 115 00:07:59,079 --> 00:08:02,319 this time that an English inventor, a guy named gold 116 00:08:02,439 --> 00:08:07,360 Worthy Gurney, developed a new and unique kind of lamp. 117 00:08:07,399 --> 00:08:11,759 It was a blowpipe that burned oxygen and hydrogen to 118 00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:16,480 create a small but extremely hot flame, and when he 119 00:08:16,639 --> 00:08:21,120 directed that flame toward calcium oxide, it made a very 120 00:08:21,480 --> 00:08:28,680 bright light. Calcium oxide was known as quick lime. Now, 121 00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:31,399 the science and the chemistry behind all of this is 122 00:08:31,519 --> 00:08:35,759 pretty thick, but in very basic terms, quick lime has 123 00:08:35,799 --> 00:08:39,320 a very high melting point, which meant that the atoms 124 00:08:39,360 --> 00:08:43,000 would vibrate rapidly, but they would not disintegrate, so you 125 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:47,279 could burn that light for long periods of time without 126 00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:52,360 the quick lime melting away. And it was an engineer, 127 00:08:52,679 --> 00:08:56,080 a guy named Thomas Drummond, who was the first person 128 00:08:56,200 --> 00:09:00,120 to make serious practical use of this new technology and 129 00:09:00,159 --> 00:09:04,039 those dark and often stormy mountains of Ireland. He and 130 00:09:04,120 --> 00:09:08,759 his survey crews would place these lime lights on the 131 00:09:08,799 --> 00:09:13,039 tops of mountains visible from as far as sixty eight 132 00:09:13,559 --> 00:09:19,000 miles away. The surveyors again had their reference points for 133 00:09:19,159 --> 00:09:25,080 the mapping of Ireland, those lime lights showing the distances 134 00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:31,320 with their white, hot flames. In eighteen thirty seven, theaters 135 00:09:31,360 --> 00:09:36,759 started using lime lights to illuminate their auditoriums. The gas 136 00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:40,679 lights that they had previously been using were not very bright. 137 00:09:40,799 --> 00:09:43,679 It was hard for actors and audiences to really see 138 00:09:43,679 --> 00:09:46,960 what was going on. The gas lights were also major 139 00:09:47,240 --> 00:09:52,759 fire hazards, but lime lights, with those little blow pipes 140 00:09:52,799 --> 00:09:56,559 and quick lime cylinders at the ends, they were a 141 00:09:56,639 --> 00:10:01,679 much better alternative. Traditionally, there would be one limelight for 142 00:10:01,759 --> 00:10:07,080 the main stage and other limelights scattered throughout the seating area, 143 00:10:07,240 --> 00:10:11,639 depending on the size and shape of the auditorium. Now 144 00:10:11,639 --> 00:10:15,919 there were downsides to the limelight. The little block inside 145 00:10:15,960 --> 00:10:19,440 each of these lights had to be constantly adjusted, so 146 00:10:19,919 --> 00:10:23,000 a monitor would have to be there tweaking it. And 147 00:10:23,039 --> 00:10:25,320 of course there was still an open flame that was 148 00:10:25,600 --> 00:10:30,159 very hot and deadly. Fires were still a danger, But 149 00:10:30,240 --> 00:10:34,159 the limelight was a much better alternative than the gas light, 150 00:10:34,799 --> 00:10:38,639 and it was used frequently for decades until a guy 151 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:44,600 named Thomas Edison came along. Edison's first practical light bulb, 152 00:10:44,720 --> 00:10:49,639 produced in eighteen seventy nine, effectively snuffed out the lime 153 00:10:49,759 --> 00:10:56,480 lights in favor of electric illumination. Still, our references to 154 00:10:56,600 --> 00:11:01,559 these little flames continue in modern day language. If somebody 155 00:11:01,720 --> 00:11:06,320 is the center of attention, they are in the lime lights, 156 00:11:07,039 --> 00:11:11,360 and in that way, those tiny calcium oxide and white 157 00:11:11,519 --> 00:11:23,039 hot flames continue to burn today. Here in the United States, 158 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:27,000 we often smile when we hear our British friends say 159 00:11:27,080 --> 00:11:33,320 goodbye using the word cheerio. Something about cheerio just sounds 160 00:11:33,360 --> 00:11:38,240 so friendly, old fashioned in the best sense of the term. 161 00:11:38,960 --> 00:11:41,200 And I wish this was a word I could get 162 00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:43,720 away with. You know, I'm an Oklahoma boy here in 163 00:11:43,759 --> 00:11:48,000 the States, and get away with goodbye bye, see you later. 164 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:50,399 Take it easy or whatever. But if I was to 165 00:11:50,440 --> 00:11:54,320 try cheerio, people would just stare at me like I'd 166 00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:58,519 grown a second head, right, But the British they can 167 00:11:58,559 --> 00:12:03,960 totally get away with it. What does cheerio mean? Well, 168 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:06,200 for the answer to this question, we go back to 169 00:12:06,240 --> 00:12:12,720 the twelve hundreds and an Anglo French word cheer chre 170 00:12:13,480 --> 00:12:17,080 that was used to describe the countenance of the face, 171 00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:22,799 in other words, the expression of emotion your look. Cheer 172 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:28,399 itself was derived from a late Latin word kara cra 173 00:12:28,720 --> 00:12:33,639 Kara means face, so cheer would refer to your frame 174 00:12:33,679 --> 00:12:37,559 of mind, your feeling, or your mood as expressed on 175 00:12:37,639 --> 00:12:41,200 the face. By the late fourteenth century, the meaning had 176 00:12:41,240 --> 00:12:45,879 expanded to mean a bit more. The quote state or 177 00:12:45,919 --> 00:12:51,399 temper of mind as indicated by expression. This could be positive, 178 00:12:51,519 --> 00:12:54,399 it could be negative. If you were in a bad way, 179 00:12:54,559 --> 00:12:58,080 you had a dreary cheer, and if you were happy, 180 00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:03,279 of course, you were a person of good cheer. Seventeen 181 00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:07,000 twenty we saw the first reference to cheer as something 182 00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:12,320 called a shout of encouragement, possibly used as a nautical 183 00:13:12,480 --> 00:13:17,639 gesture between sailors on the ocean. The greeting. What cheer 184 00:13:18,039 --> 00:13:21,600 made its way across the oceans, as Puritans used the 185 00:13:21,759 --> 00:13:25,639 term in southern New England. It was picked up by 186 00:13:25,679 --> 00:13:30,600 the Algonquin Indians and spread outward as far as Canada. 187 00:13:31,399 --> 00:13:35,320 By the early twentieth century, cheer had evolved with a 188 00:13:35,320 --> 00:13:39,279 little more flair, first noticed in eighteen ninety six as 189 00:13:39,600 --> 00:13:46,120 cheer oh, and then in nineteen eighteen as cheerio. Cheers 190 00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:50,080 my friend's encouragement to you, may you have a good 191 00:13:50,320 --> 00:13:54,399 frame of mind and a good day, a good life 192 00:13:54,799 --> 00:13:58,600 all around it. And of course a version of the 193 00:13:58,639 --> 00:14:02,399 original cheer can also be heard when we lift our 194 00:14:02,559 --> 00:14:08,240 glasses in salute, we toast someone, we say cheers. And 195 00:14:08,399 --> 00:14:13,039 on another related note, there's that famous breakfast cereal, which 196 00:14:13,159 --> 00:14:19,559 debuted back in nineteen forty one as cheery Oats Oats 197 00:14:19,879 --> 00:14:24,799 Cheery Oats, which four years later was shortened to just 198 00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:39,360 be cheerios. Most coffee lovers enjoy a good cappuccino, but 199 00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:42,799 have we ever stopped to ask what a cappuccino really 200 00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:47,639 is beyond the espresso, the steamed milk, and the foam. 201 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:52,440 We hear cappuccino and we think italy rite the Italian word, 202 00:14:52,639 --> 00:14:58,200 but The drink itself actually originated in Vienna, Austria. Back 203 00:14:58,240 --> 00:15:01,480 in eighteen oh five, there was a coffee house located 204 00:15:01,600 --> 00:15:05,919 in Vienna, and it first listed on its menu a 205 00:15:06,159 --> 00:15:12,600 coffee with milk and cream. People tried it, they enjoyed it. 206 00:15:13,080 --> 00:15:17,600 Other shops in the area started serving something similar, doing 207 00:15:17,639 --> 00:15:21,879 their own rifts on it, adding various flavors and spices, 208 00:15:22,039 --> 00:15:26,960 and the drink spread out of Austrian borders. Of course, 209 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:31,639 it went into Italy, where it was given the name capuccino. 210 00:15:32,440 --> 00:15:36,600 Why did they call it a cappuccino. The drink was 211 00:15:36,639 --> 00:15:41,159 actually named for its color, the same color as the 212 00:15:41,279 --> 00:15:48,360 robes of Capuchin monks. The Capuchins were a sixteenth century 213 00:15:48,759 --> 00:15:55,120 order in central Italy. They were reformed Franciscans. These monks 214 00:15:55,159 --> 00:16:00,759 emphasized the simple life, a life of prayer and quiet templation. 215 00:16:01,639 --> 00:16:05,039 And yes, they wore those types of robes that you 216 00:16:05,159 --> 00:16:10,440 and I envision when somebody says, monk that milk chocolate 217 00:16:10,600 --> 00:16:14,440 color of brown. There was a cord with three knots, 218 00:16:14,559 --> 00:16:19,360 which represented their three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. 219 00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:24,120 The cord tied the hood of the robe, and the 220 00:16:24,120 --> 00:16:31,080 hood was called a cappuccino. The invention of espresso machines 221 00:16:31,360 --> 00:16:36,039 in the early nineteen hundreds caused cappuccinos, the drinks, not 222 00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:40,840 the robes, to become known and loved far beyond Austria 223 00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:44,960 and Italy all around the world. But now, when you 224 00:16:45,120 --> 00:16:50,440 sip your hot, delicious espresso frothed with fluffy milk, and 225 00:16:50,480 --> 00:16:54,600 you see that distinct milky brown color in your cup, 226 00:16:55,039 --> 00:16:59,799 you will see echoes of the old capuchin monks, the 227 00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:06,519 men humbly contemplating all things in thinking brains covered in 228 00:17:06,599 --> 00:17:13,400 those capuccino hoods. By the way, American soldiers that were 229 00:17:13,440 --> 00:17:17,960 stationed in Italy during the Second World War often wanted 230 00:17:18,079 --> 00:17:22,480 a coffee, but they weren't always fans of the Italian espresso. 231 00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:27,119 They said it was just too strong for American taste buds. 232 00:17:27,319 --> 00:17:32,599 They wanted something less intense, more like the drip coffee 233 00:17:32,839 --> 00:17:36,680 they enjoyed back in the United States. And so local 234 00:17:36,799 --> 00:17:41,279 baristas in Italy started adding more and more and more 235 00:17:41,480 --> 00:17:46,160 hot water to the heavy espresso, maybe tossing in some 236 00:17:46,319 --> 00:17:49,200 milk and sugar if desired, and then they would serve 237 00:17:49,279 --> 00:17:53,799 them to American troops, and that drink became known as 238 00:17:53,880 --> 00:18:00,400 the Cafe Americano, which is why our Starbucks men use 239 00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:08,440 and almost all coffee menus offer Americano coffee today. And 240 00:18:08,559 --> 00:18:13,720 one last coffee note, this one about the machiato. An 241 00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:18,599 espresso machiato is made with one shot of espresso diluted 242 00:18:18,680 --> 00:18:22,920 with one to two teaspoons of steamed milk. A latte 243 00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:27,039 machiato has maybe a half shot of espresso with steamed 244 00:18:27,079 --> 00:18:30,599 milk and a taller glass. It is a sweeter drink. 245 00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:34,240 It's more layered. The small amount of milk is supposed 246 00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:36,720 to add a little bit of sweetness to it, but 247 00:18:36,799 --> 00:18:40,640 it's not enough to knock the punch out of the espresso. 248 00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:44,960 Some people say the machiato is just too bitter. Others 249 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:49,359 say they just prefer the stronger, straight espresso. But the name, 250 00:18:49,880 --> 00:18:57,759 the Italian word machiato translates marked or stained. The added 251 00:18:57,799 --> 00:19:01,880 milk and sugar leaves a mark or a stain on 252 00:19:02,119 --> 00:19:08,240 the espresso. And because machiato means marked or stained, the 253 00:19:08,599 --> 00:19:13,759 espresso has been marked or stained. It is a machiato. 254 00:19:17,960 --> 00:19:21,359 Can you feel the pressure inside your skull as the 255 00:19:21,359 --> 00:19:27,519 brain expands? We are evolving? Oh yeah, I can feel it, 256 00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:38,680 and we're just getting started. More to come next. I'm 257 00:19:38,680 --> 00:19:41,799 going to be speaking for the Friday night banquets at 258 00:19:41,839 --> 00:19:47,799 the upcoming American Atheist National Convention. That's Easter weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 259 00:19:48,279 --> 00:19:56,799 Big events on the way as well, Calgary, Alberta, Seattle, Washington, Wichita, Kansas, Nashville, Tennessee, Sarnia, Ontario, 260 00:19:57,359 --> 00:20:01,119 and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Not speaking at all these, 261 00:20:01,119 --> 00:20:04,839 but they're just great conventions and free thought gatherings that 262 00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:07,599 you won't want to miss if you're in the area. 263 00:20:07,799 --> 00:20:16,559 Details at the Thinkingatheist dot com slash events. Okay, right 264 00:20:16,599 --> 00:20:21,640 now we're back to some general knowledge learning stuff about 265 00:20:21,759 --> 00:20:30,759 random stuff. Joe Woodland was sitting on Miami Beach and 266 00:20:30,799 --> 00:20:34,640 he was thinking about dots and dashes. That's just how 267 00:20:34,759 --> 00:20:38,960 Joe was wired. He was an analytical guy. He had 268 00:20:39,079 --> 00:20:43,720 learned Morse code in the Boy Scouts many years before, 269 00:20:43,799 --> 00:20:47,480 and so there he was sitting in contemplation on the beach, 270 00:20:47,799 --> 00:20:51,599 poking his fingers into the sand. He was writing things 271 00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:56,000 in Morse code. Now, there may be a lot of 272 00:20:56,039 --> 00:20:59,200 younger folks who have heard the term Morse code, but 273 00:20:59,279 --> 00:21:02,440 they have no idea what I'm talking about. Morse code 274 00:21:02,519 --> 00:21:08,160 is a communications method which uses dots and dashes, known 275 00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:13,720 officially as dits and does international Morse code translates the 276 00:21:13,759 --> 00:21:18,000 twenty six basic Latin letters A dizy into these little 277 00:21:18,119 --> 00:21:22,880 characters of dots and dashes of various combinations and lengths. 278 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:26,599 And you can use Morse code with sound or flashes 279 00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:29,799 of light. In fact, here is the sound of audio 280 00:21:29,960 --> 00:21:42,000 morse code spelling out the word hello. Now for obvious reasons, 281 00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:45,960 Morse code takes a lot of time to use, but 282 00:21:46,119 --> 00:21:50,000 it was used. And Joe was there on the beach 283 00:21:50,079 --> 00:21:53,519 and he was poking his dots and dashes in the sand, 284 00:21:53,519 --> 00:21:57,519 and he had his fingers submerged in the sand, when 285 00:21:57,680 --> 00:22:02,559 for some reason, he pulled his fingers toward him and 286 00:22:02,599 --> 00:22:06,160 he looked down at the pattern he had created, and 287 00:22:06,200 --> 00:22:10,119 he saw that he had four lines. And he realized 288 00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:15,200 that these could be wide lines or narrow lines, since 289 00:22:15,279 --> 00:22:18,440 that of just dots and dashes. And then he took 290 00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:21,920 those same four fingers, still in the sand, and he 291 00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:25,920 swept them around into a circle. And he thought, hmm, 292 00:22:26,359 --> 00:22:30,880 this is a new kind of language. And Joe had 293 00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:36,119 been looking to create a new language, and I am 294 00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:40,880 guessing you are already ahead of me. Joe Woodland had 295 00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:45,640 graduated from Drexel Institute of Technology with a degree in 296 00:22:45,720 --> 00:22:50,079 mechanical engineering in nineteen forty eight. The head of a 297 00:22:50,119 --> 00:22:54,119 local grocery store chain came to Drexel in the hopes 298 00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:58,160 of developing a new way to read product data during 299 00:22:58,319 --> 00:23:03,640 checkouts of the school said Nah, I'm not interested. But 300 00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:09,720 Joe Woodland and his classmate Bernard Silver were interested, and 301 00:23:09,759 --> 00:23:15,039 they seized the opportunity. And it was Joe's gliding fingers 302 00:23:15,119 --> 00:23:19,400 in that sand that became ground zero for a new 303 00:23:19,599 --> 00:23:24,880 kind of product identifier, his original version shaped in the 304 00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:29,400 form of a bullseye. On October seventh, nineteen fifty two, 305 00:23:29,799 --> 00:23:33,880 the two engineers received a patent for their invention with 306 00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:39,279 a catchy name. It was called Classifying Apparatus and Method, 307 00:23:39,920 --> 00:23:42,880 and it would find its first use in a grocery 308 00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:49,319 store in Ohio in nineteen sixty six. Joe Woodland went 309 00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:52,880 to work for IBM in nineteen fifty two. We stayed 310 00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:56,599 until he retired in nineteen eighty seven, and he further 311 00:23:56,839 --> 00:24:01,680 developed his system with laser scanning to technology and computer 312 00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:06,920 micro processors as they were becoming more popular. In nineteen seventy, 313 00:24:07,039 --> 00:24:12,920 product makers standardized ID codes for common grocery items, and 314 00:24:13,079 --> 00:24:16,480 Joe would go on to receive the National Metal of 315 00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:21,759 Technology and Innovation in nineteen ninety two, inducted with his 316 00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:26,440 partner into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in twenty 317 00:24:26,599 --> 00:24:31,839 eleven for bringing us those bars, the bars which were 318 00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:38,720 his riff on Morse code the bar code. That first 319 00:24:38,759 --> 00:24:42,720 grocery store, the one that first scanned a bar code, 320 00:24:42,839 --> 00:24:46,680 was located in the small town of Troy, Ohio. This 321 00:24:46,720 --> 00:24:52,720 is where the checkout equipment manufacturer National Cash Register was located. 322 00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:57,960 NCR invented all kinds of cash register innovations like weighing 323 00:24:58,079 --> 00:25:03,000 and pricing machines, and it introduced that first barcode friendly 324 00:25:03,359 --> 00:25:07,519 register and it scanned its first item just after eight 325 00:25:07,599 --> 00:25:11,880 in the morning on June twenty sixth, nineteen seventy four. 326 00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:17,079 The item was a pack of Wrigley's chewing gum. The 327 00:25:17,079 --> 00:25:22,039 first major company to integrate the UPC or universal product 328 00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:27,319 code was Kmart. The technology exploded in the nineteen eighties 329 00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:34,200 and the instant retail ID that was the barcode changed everything. Today, 330 00:25:34,319 --> 00:25:37,680 they are used by about ninety percent of the top 331 00:25:37,759 --> 00:25:43,000 five hundred companies in the United States, all because a 332 00:25:43,119 --> 00:25:47,480 man who was once a boy scout made dots and 333 00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:53,200 dashes in the sand in that moment, from a single Troy, 334 00:25:53,359 --> 00:25:58,599 Miami grocery chain to the cash registers of the entire world. 335 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:12,880 Woodland literally cracked the code. Here's something I've wondered. It's 336 00:26:12,920 --> 00:26:15,160 not a big deal, but it's just a short one 337 00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:19,240 I thought you might be interested in. On aircraft carriers, 338 00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:24,359 the runways aren't straight, like the ship isn't like here 339 00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:27,200 to there, and the runway just goes linear. It's always 340 00:26:27,279 --> 00:26:34,440 kind of cock eyed. Why are runways angled on aircraft carriers? Well, 341 00:26:34,519 --> 00:26:41,319 this alteration came about because of the jet plane. Previously, 342 00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:47,119 with propeller aircraft landing on carriers, straight runways were easier 343 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:49,799 because the planes were much lighter and they were a 344 00:26:49,839 --> 00:26:52,799 lot slower. So even if the plane was trying to 345 00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:57,279 hook onto those arresting wires to stop and missed, there 346 00:26:57,279 --> 00:27:01,799 were barricades that could stop a prop plane that overshot 347 00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:04,160 the mark. It wasn't that big a deal. But then 348 00:27:04,279 --> 00:27:08,799 came the heavier, faster jets. This became a problem. So 349 00:27:09,079 --> 00:27:13,680 carriers were soon built with the runway's angled by about 350 00:27:13,759 --> 00:27:19,480 ten degrees for landing. This resulted in fewer landing accidents 351 00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:24,359 that meant less risk to pilots, fewer repairs, the saving 352 00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:29,279 of lives and money. The angled runway also freed up 353 00:27:29,279 --> 00:27:34,240 a section on deck for parked or staged planes, and 354 00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:37,000 some carriers were big enough to be able to accommodate 355 00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:43,160 multiple launching catapults with separate launch decks, which meant more 356 00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:46,000 planes in the air in less time. And then if 357 00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:49,160 somebody bombed part of the deck of the ship, they 358 00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:54,519 wouldn't necessarily knock out all of its launching capacity. So 359 00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:59,480 that is the story of the angled deck on aircraft carriers, 360 00:28:00,039 --> 00:28:04,000 result of heavy jets, the desire for more planes and 361 00:28:04,240 --> 00:28:15,359 better efficiency on deck. Have you ever been lying in 362 00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:19,640 bed and you're drifting off to sleep. It's bliss right. 363 00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:24,960 The lights are off, you're snuggled, you're hibernating. You know, 364 00:28:25,039 --> 00:28:27,519 you've got the big comforter, and you're just there. Maybe 365 00:28:27,559 --> 00:28:30,440 you've got a fan on or something, and you're just 366 00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:34,960 almost there. You're almost asleep. You've fallen asleep, but just barely. 367 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:38,039 And then suddenly you have the feeling that you are 368 00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:42,440 falling out of the sky and you jolt awake on 369 00:28:43,079 --> 00:28:46,119 the mattress. Maybe you flop around a little bit. I do, 370 00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:53,279 and Natalie. Natalie is always like, what the hell, I'm 371 00:28:53,319 --> 00:28:56,519 just laying there. I was falling. I was falling in 372 00:28:56,559 --> 00:28:59,480 my sleep. This happens to a lot of people. I'll 373 00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:02,680 bet it's happen to you. What is going on? Well, 374 00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:09,680 there's a name for this. It is called the hypnic jerk. Now, 375 00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:14,440 the hypnic jerk, also known as a sleep start, remains 376 00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:17,160 a bit of a mystery. There's a lot of speculation, 377 00:29:17,400 --> 00:29:22,400 but science has not yet determined outright what causes this. 378 00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:26,160 It is suspected that when you and I are falling asleep, 379 00:29:26,279 --> 00:29:31,720 something is misfiring in the reticular brain stem. This activates 380 00:29:31,839 --> 00:29:36,440 a startle response when there's nothing actually there to startle 381 00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:40,519 this there's like a short circuit. It is also possible 382 00:29:40,519 --> 00:29:43,440 that we are having some kind of reaction to dream 383 00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:47,240 like imagery. Maybe we've already started to dream and something 384 00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:50,680 kind of rattles our cage or surprises us, and so 385 00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:55,519 we react physically. Because the body is not yet inert 386 00:29:56,079 --> 00:29:58,599 when you and I are dreaming, of course, the brain 387 00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:02,759 paralyzes the body so that you know we're running in 388 00:30:02,799 --> 00:30:05,319 our dream, we're not actually running around the house, right. 389 00:30:05,359 --> 00:30:09,160 The brain actually makes the body not move. This is 390 00:30:09,279 --> 00:30:14,440 a good thing, but if we haven't quite fallen totally asleep, 391 00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:17,119 then we might see a little bit of a flash 392 00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:19,680 of an image or a dream and the body will 393 00:30:19,759 --> 00:30:24,920 react even more. Certain factors make the hipnick jerk more 394 00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:30,279 likely to happen. Too much caffeine or other stimulants in 395 00:30:30,319 --> 00:30:34,599 the body. Nicotine is another substance that kind of wakes 396 00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:37,160 up the brain even when the rest of our body 397 00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:41,440 is tired. Exercise is really good for us, and it 398 00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:46,480 often helps to improve sleep. But if you exercise really 399 00:30:46,519 --> 00:30:50,440 close to bedtime, it's possible that your brain is still 400 00:30:50,599 --> 00:30:55,599 really activated and super alert even when you close your 401 00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:59,680 eyes and turn off the lights. Of course, this is 402 00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:06,839 not a surprise. Stress and anxiety, chronic insomnia, sleep deprivation, 403 00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:10,640 this can be a big factor. It can also affect 404 00:31:10,720 --> 00:31:14,400 our mood and our focus. All of this stuff combines 405 00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:17,640 to make us a little bit more agitated. When we 406 00:31:17,799 --> 00:31:20,720 finish the day, we are more likely to have some 407 00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:26,000 kind of a brain misfire which shocks us physically. The 408 00:31:26,079 --> 00:31:30,079 hypnic jerk is commonly experienced in much the same way. 409 00:31:30,160 --> 00:31:34,640 The feeling of falling sometimes hallucinations, a flashing light, a 410 00:31:34,759 --> 00:31:39,079 blinding light, the sounds of banging or snapping. When you 411 00:31:39,279 --> 00:31:42,799 jolt to consciousness, it's almost like somebody pounded on the 412 00:31:42,839 --> 00:31:48,319 wall or the bedpost. But the hypnic jerk is usually harmless. 413 00:31:48,839 --> 00:31:52,200 So the next time you feel like you are falling 414 00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:56,440 and then you land hard on the mattress stone, worry, 415 00:31:56,960 --> 00:32:01,680 You're not broken. You are just hip nick lee jerking. 416 00:32:03,039 --> 00:32:05,400 And the upside is that you can just tell your 417 00:32:05,599 --> 00:32:12,880 formerly sleeping partner that it was involuntary and not your fault. 418 00:32:22,759 --> 00:32:25,160 I was getting a haircut last week, and I'm sitting 419 00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:29,200 in the barber chair is it a barber, stylist, technician, 420 00:32:29,359 --> 00:32:32,240 whatever you call them, and you know, they put that 421 00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:34,720 bib on you. They tie it around the neck and 422 00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:38,640 then you've got the big sort of body tarp to 423 00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:41,279 keep the hair from falling all over your clothing. And 424 00:32:41,319 --> 00:32:44,920 I'm sitting there with my hands under this bib and 425 00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:48,799 I suddenly got an itch on the end of my nose, 426 00:32:50,039 --> 00:32:51,880 and I don't know why, but I did not want 427 00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:55,519 to reach up and scratch it. She wasn't going to 428 00:32:55,599 --> 00:32:59,640 cut my finger off with the scissors. But for some reason, 429 00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:02,799 I was really shy about it. I'm sitting there totally still. 430 00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:05,200 The itch is getting worse and worse and worse, until 431 00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:07,039 finally I could not take it. I'm like, hang on, 432 00:33:07,119 --> 00:33:09,240 I've got an itch, and so I yank my hand 433 00:33:09,279 --> 00:33:14,039 out and scratched the end of my nose. Sweet relief. 434 00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:19,359 But what caused the end of my nose to itch 435 00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:24,319 like that? Well, according to the Mayo Clinic, there is 436 00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:30,559 a name for itchy skin. It is prroritis, which is 437 00:33:30,599 --> 00:33:33,720 hard to say. So I'm just gonna stick with itchy skin. 438 00:33:34,839 --> 00:33:38,799 The itch itself is often caused when our skin gets dry, 439 00:33:39,559 --> 00:33:43,839 and dry skin gets worse as we age. The skin 440 00:33:44,039 --> 00:33:48,319 sometimes cracks, these tiny little microscopic cracks, and then it 441 00:33:48,319 --> 00:33:52,680 gets irritated. Nerves will respond to this with something that 442 00:33:52,839 --> 00:33:58,480 isn't pain, but it's discomfort, like a precursor to pain 443 00:33:58,599 --> 00:34:03,240 and irritant. Other causes for the skin itch might be 444 00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:07,440 the condition exima. This is a pretty serious thing, and 445 00:34:07,480 --> 00:34:12,199 a lot of people dry cracked irritated skin chronically. Maybe 446 00:34:12,199 --> 00:34:16,480 you brushed up against an allergen or an irritant, sometimes 447 00:34:16,559 --> 00:34:21,079 resulting in a reaction like a rash, psoriasis, is a 448 00:34:21,079 --> 00:34:25,639 condition that causes flaky patches and even scales to develop 449 00:34:25,679 --> 00:34:27,519 on the skin, and that can kind of rub and 450 00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:34,400 irritate Inflamed hair follicles might be the culprit dandriff, that 451 00:34:34,679 --> 00:34:37,320 dead skin that kind of hangs out on the scalp, 452 00:34:37,440 --> 00:34:41,159 or the hair parasites like head lice, those can be 453 00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:47,360 really itchy. A viral infection like chicken pox or athlete's foot, 454 00:34:48,039 --> 00:34:51,800 overactive thyroid might be to blame, or maybe some other 455 00:34:52,039 --> 00:34:58,800 internal condition that causes itching sensations. Hormonal changes might trigger it, 456 00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:04,480 or even psychological conditions like depression could make someone feel 457 00:35:04,679 --> 00:35:11,440 skin discomfort. There are so many complex possibilities. The National 458 00:35:11,519 --> 00:35:17,760 Institute of Health has some recommendations for chronic itchers. Instead 459 00:35:17,760 --> 00:35:22,559 of scratching the itch and potentially aggravating the problem, just 460 00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:26,559 pat it or tap it with your fingers. I've tried this. 461 00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:32,760 That's just crap. There's nothing like a good scratch. I've 462 00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:36,159 also heard scratch around it, not scratched, they at scratch 463 00:35:36,199 --> 00:35:39,880 around it. I've never had success with that. Also from 464 00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:44,800 the NIH, put a damp towel against the area, use 465 00:35:45,199 --> 00:35:51,800 unperfumed moisturizer, whar loose cotton clothing or something that is 466 00:35:52,039 --> 00:35:56,800 non abrasive fabric, and of course check that laundry detergent 467 00:35:56,880 --> 00:35:59,639 to make sure there is not some chemical in there 468 00:35:59,679 --> 00:36:10,480 that is making your skin all angry. Here's an origin 469 00:36:10,840 --> 00:36:14,480 of an everyday thing that I thought you might enjoy. 470 00:36:15,599 --> 00:36:21,239 Nineteen ninety one, the University of Cambridge, England, two innovative 471 00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:26,559 men invented something so unique, so novel, so groundbreaking, so 472 00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:30,800 useful that you and I would see around eight billion 473 00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:35,079 versions of their invention in use all around the world today, 474 00:36:36,119 --> 00:36:41,360 the webcam. These two researchers worked in a seven story 475 00:36:41,480 --> 00:36:44,760 computer lab at Cambridge and they were trying to make 476 00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:49,719 a locally networked surveillance camera that would broadcast video from 477 00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:55,400 one location to computer monitors throughout the entire building. Now 478 00:36:55,400 --> 00:37:00,280 this seems so quaint today, so easy to do. Modern 479 00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:04,119 webcams are built into our entire lives, our home and 480 00:37:04,239 --> 00:37:08,920 office computers, even our cell phones. And they're amazing technology. 481 00:37:09,079 --> 00:37:13,679 Full color, four K resolution, enhancements to take out the 482 00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:17,719 background or ad decorations, all kinds of bells and whistles. 483 00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:20,840 But this was way back in nineteen ninety one, the 484 00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:24,440 time when radio stations were playing both grunge bands and 485 00:37:24,559 --> 00:37:29,039 color me bad Converse was the popular tennis shoe. The 486 00:37:29,119 --> 00:37:33,599 Soviet Union was dissolving the big computers at that time, 487 00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:37,719 the Apple II, the Commodore sixty four, the Radio Shack 488 00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:44,039 TRS eighty standard IBM office computers PCs often ran on 489 00:37:44,199 --> 00:37:49,039 Windows three point zero, the installation of which required seven 490 00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:53,159 separate discs that would be loaded one after the other 491 00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:57,280 into a drive. Installation could take hours, and the National 492 00:37:57,400 --> 00:38:02,599 Science Foundation had just opened the Internet for commercial use, 493 00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:08,159 introducing the World Wide Web and eventually connecting billions of 494 00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:12,760 US in real time. Nineteen ninety one. This was the 495 00:38:12,800 --> 00:38:17,039 time of the Intel four eighty six microprocessor, where a 496 00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:23,840 twenty five megahertz processor speed and four meg of memory 497 00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:28,880 were revolutionary. Now compare that twenty five megahertz then to 498 00:38:29,519 --> 00:38:35,159 four gigahertz today, four meg of memory then to perhaps 499 00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:41,039 thirty two gig of ram today. It's funny. Computer culture 500 00:38:41,239 --> 00:38:44,840 a quarter century ago was both the time of Enlightenment 501 00:38:45,440 --> 00:38:49,440 and the Dark Ages. And something like a networked camera 502 00:38:49,719 --> 00:38:54,639 sending a single video feed to a building of computer users. 503 00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:59,239 Nothing like that had ever been done before, but these researchers, 504 00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:03,840 Quentin's Stafford Fraser and Paul Jardetski at the University of 505 00:39:03,920 --> 00:39:08,079 Cambridge set themselves to make a webcam so they could 506 00:39:08,119 --> 00:39:12,159 give their fellow researchers the ability to surveil the happenings 507 00:39:12,199 --> 00:39:18,119 at point A, streaming to their individual monitors at points BCD, etc. 508 00:39:19,039 --> 00:39:22,960 Quentin wrote the software using the X window system protocol. 509 00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:27,400 Paul wrote the server program. The camera feed was a 510 00:39:27,639 --> 00:39:32,960 staggering one hundred and twenty nine gray scale pixels and 511 00:39:33,039 --> 00:39:36,599 it wasn't actually video. This camera would only be able 512 00:39:36,639 --> 00:39:40,440 to snap three photos a minute to send up the chain. 513 00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:44,519 And remember this was two years before web browsers could 514 00:39:44,599 --> 00:39:49,280 even display images, So Fraser and Jardetski had to write 515 00:39:49,440 --> 00:39:53,840 a specific program just to allow visuals to stream to 516 00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:58,440 everybody's computer. But they did it. They built it, they 517 00:39:58,519 --> 00:40:04,400 programmed it, they activated it. They connected researchers at academics 518 00:40:04,440 --> 00:40:08,519 in a seven story Cambridge computer lab to a three 519 00:40:08,920 --> 00:40:14,440 frame a minute webcam feed that these people would obsess over. 520 00:40:14,760 --> 00:40:18,719 They would obsess over it, and not just because of 521 00:40:18,800 --> 00:40:24,960 the ground breaking technology you see computer innovation, code writing, 522 00:40:25,239 --> 00:40:29,039 et cetera. These things require lots of hours behind a computer, 523 00:40:29,559 --> 00:40:36,519 hard work requiring a focused brain, brains which crave stimulation. 524 00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:41,320 But people were tired of walking the whole building to 525 00:40:41,559 --> 00:40:48,679 one specific break room only to find that the coffee 526 00:40:48,719 --> 00:40:55,119 pot was empty. That's right. The first webcam was built 527 00:40:55,199 --> 00:40:58,679 so that a building full of Cambridge researchers could see 528 00:40:58,719 --> 00:41:02,039 if there was any coffee made before they got up 529 00:41:02,079 --> 00:41:04,599 and walked all the way down to fill their mugs. 530 00:41:04,960 --> 00:41:10,480 Programmer Quentin Stafford Fraser actually called his custom program ex 531 00:41:10,639 --> 00:41:15,239 Coffee and it saved thousands and thousands and thousands of 532 00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:20,159 needless steps down halls and stairways. It also let everybody 533 00:41:20,199 --> 00:41:24,760 know when someone needed to make fresh coffee. The ex 534 00:41:24,920 --> 00:41:29,440 Coffee camera has become part of technology history. It actually 535 00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:33,159 has its own wiki page. It is listed on computer 536 00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:38,079 history chronologies. And when that laboratory was moved in two 537 00:41:38,079 --> 00:41:42,960 thousand and one, the primitive little webcam, the first webcam, 538 00:41:43,199 --> 00:41:47,800 was finally switched off for the very last time. The 539 00:41:47,840 --> 00:41:51,360 story of that turning off was covered in The Times, 540 00:41:51,440 --> 00:41:56,000 the Washington Post and elsewhere. The last of that series 541 00:41:56,039 --> 00:42:00,119 of coffee machines in that breakroom monitored by webcam. The 542 00:42:00,199 --> 00:42:04,119 last one was eventually sold to a German news website 543 00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:08,280 via eBay. It was restored and switched on in the 544 00:42:08,320 --> 00:42:12,519 magazine's editorial office, and that coffee maker now sits in 545 00:42:12,599 --> 00:42:18,599 the hinz Nixdorf Museum. Oh what a marriage coffee and 546 00:42:18,719 --> 00:42:22,880 the ability to see remotely whether or not the coffee 547 00:42:23,159 --> 00:42:27,800 is made. That love of the sacred java provided the 548 00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:33,400 launch point for the webcam we used today in zoom meetings, webcasts, 549 00:42:33,639 --> 00:42:39,519 FaceTime with family and friends, all of that from coffeecam. 550 00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:44,159 The late author and humorist Terry Pratchett once said, coffee 551 00:42:44,239 --> 00:42:47,880 is a way of stealing time that should buy rights 552 00:42:48,079 --> 00:42:52,360 belong to your older self. Thirty five years ago to 553 00:42:52,719 --> 00:42:58,199 Cambridge programmer's bought time for seven floors of coffee drinkers. 554 00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:03,039 How could they know back then that their coffee cam 555 00:43:03,559 --> 00:43:11,039 would change the world. Next up, let's get serious about 556 00:43:11,039 --> 00:43:14,719 the soap opera. Why don't we call them a soap opera? 557 00:43:15,119 --> 00:43:25,599 I'm going to tell you next. I am so thankful 558 00:43:25,679 --> 00:43:30,360 for you for listening, for supporting the show, spreading the word, 559 00:43:30,599 --> 00:43:34,559 and for being a patron. And if you aren't a patron, 560 00:43:34,599 --> 00:43:38,400 I would so welcome a patronage from you. You can 561 00:43:38,440 --> 00:43:40,800 decide how much you want to support me with how 562 00:43:40,800 --> 00:43:43,880 many shows, what dollar amount, etc. You can just go 563 00:43:43,960 --> 00:43:50,480 to Patreon dot com slash seth Andrews and I bow 564 00:43:50,559 --> 00:43:55,960 in your general direction. Continuing our broadcast today, just some fun, 565 00:43:56,079 --> 00:44:02,119 general knowledge and a break from the crazy world daytime television. 566 00:44:02,719 --> 00:44:05,800 What are we talking about there, right? Game shows, talk 567 00:44:05,920 --> 00:44:11,239 shows and soap operas? Right, Well, we understand the words 568 00:44:11,360 --> 00:44:17,440 game and talk But why our daytime drama is called soaps. 569 00:44:18,159 --> 00:44:21,519 To find the answer to this deep and probing question, 570 00:44:21,760 --> 00:44:24,840 we again go back in time, this time to the 571 00:44:24,920 --> 00:44:30,400 early twentieth century, to the era when radio was king. 572 00:44:30,639 --> 00:44:33,480 In fact, the first program that was ever called a 573 00:44:33,639 --> 00:44:38,360 soap opera aired before the age of television. It was 574 00:44:38,400 --> 00:44:43,280 a show called Painted Dreams, a radio show which debuted 575 00:44:43,320 --> 00:44:47,679 on the twentieth of October nineteen thirty on wg INN 576 00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:53,199 in Chicago, and this radio drama aired every weekday in 577 00:44:53,239 --> 00:44:59,039 a fifteen minute time slot. The target audience was housewives. 578 00:44:59,639 --> 00:45:04,280 The storytory line of Painted Dreams involved in American widow, 579 00:45:04,840 --> 00:45:10,159 a woman named Mother Moynahan and her unmarried daughter. Other 580 00:45:10,360 --> 00:45:14,440 radio soaps to follow included shows with titles like the 581 00:45:14,519 --> 00:45:20,039 Affairs of Doctor Gentry Against the Storm and Amanda of 582 00:45:20,320 --> 00:45:25,719 Honeymoon Hill. The first daytime TV soap in the US 583 00:45:25,880 --> 00:45:28,760 first aired back in nineteen forty nine. It was called 584 00:45:29,199 --> 00:45:34,039 These Are My Children, kicking off a whole genre of 585 00:45:34,159 --> 00:45:39,840 daytime TV serials designed to draw viewers into the lives 586 00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:44,159 and loves and loyalties and betrayals, the scandals, the deaths, 587 00:45:44,559 --> 00:45:50,039 even the resurrections of familiar characters. Soap operas, of course, 588 00:45:50,079 --> 00:45:54,639 are shot cheaply, they're shot fast, and they usually happen 589 00:45:54,760 --> 00:46:02,360 in common indoor sets. Serials are about quantum, not necessarily quality, 590 00:46:02,480 --> 00:46:07,559 but they remain popular all of these decades later. Today, 591 00:46:07,679 --> 00:46:11,079 the most watched soap opera in the United States is 592 00:46:11,159 --> 00:46:16,159 The Young and the Restless, which of course features beautiful 593 00:46:16,199 --> 00:46:21,800 people who are very young and very restless. Okay, fine, 594 00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:26,639 but why do we call them soap operas? Well? The 595 00:46:26,760 --> 00:46:31,519 early radio and television shows were often funded, not with 596 00:46:31,800 --> 00:46:35,880 various commercial breaks and a whole bunch of different advertisers. 597 00:46:36,519 --> 00:46:41,480 Shows were funded with one single sponsor, and a bunch 598 00:46:41,559 --> 00:46:48,400 of those daytime serials were sponsored by soap makers. As 599 00:46:48,480 --> 00:46:51,920 The World Turns is brought to you today by Colgate 600 00:46:52,280 --> 00:46:56,000 Paul Malive, right, that was the whole show. One sponsor. 601 00:46:56,440 --> 00:47:01,199 Guiding Light is brought to you today by pro in gambles, 602 00:47:01,199 --> 00:47:07,079 oxidol and ivory soaps. And it was the promotion of 603 00:47:07,239 --> 00:47:13,159 bath lathers and household cleaners advertised to a female audience 604 00:47:13,480 --> 00:47:17,719 in the mid twentieth century of housewives and homemakers that 605 00:47:17,920 --> 00:47:24,920 caused daytime serial shows to be known as the soap operas. 606 00:47:25,199 --> 00:47:35,760 They were dramas funded by detergents. Okay, you're watching or 607 00:47:35,800 --> 00:47:39,360 you're reading a story or listening to a story. It's 608 00:47:39,360 --> 00:47:42,760 some kind of a maybe a murder mystery. Okay, it's 609 00:47:42,800 --> 00:47:47,199 a yarn, a complicated puzzle where the pieces are not 610 00:47:47,320 --> 00:47:52,159 all put together, and the story uses something or someone 611 00:47:52,199 --> 00:47:56,800 that will mislead or distract you from the real cause 612 00:47:57,119 --> 00:48:02,559 or culprit. Oh, sure was actually Colonel Mustard with the 613 00:48:02,679 --> 00:48:06,800 revolver in the library, but the clues had made it 614 00:48:06,840 --> 00:48:10,559 look like the killer was Miss Scarlet with the dagger 615 00:48:10,760 --> 00:48:16,519 in the study. Indicators pointed to Miss Scarlet, she wasn't 616 00:48:16,719 --> 00:48:20,960 the one. She was a red herring. Well, why do 617 00:48:21,039 --> 00:48:24,559 we call this kind of thing a red herring? To 618 00:48:24,599 --> 00:48:26,760 find out, we have to travel back to the year 619 00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:32,800 eighteen oh seven, talking about an English politician and writer, 620 00:48:33,320 --> 00:48:36,960 a guy named William Cobbitt, and he wrote a fictional 621 00:48:37,079 --> 00:48:41,559 story that criticized the media, as the press was totally 622 00:48:41,679 --> 00:48:46,079 fixated on the defeat of Napoleon. It was all they 623 00:48:46,119 --> 00:48:51,239 talked about, Napoleon, Napoleon, Napoleon prematurely saying that he has 624 00:48:51,280 --> 00:48:54,599 been defeated over and over again, ignoring everything else that 625 00:48:54,760 --> 00:48:58,360 was going on. He was irritated, and so he wrote 626 00:48:58,400 --> 00:49:02,880 a fictional story that sort of served as an analogy 627 00:49:03,000 --> 00:49:05,880 for this kind of distraction. His story was the tale 628 00:49:05,880 --> 00:49:08,880 of a boy who was trying to throw hunting dogs 629 00:49:09,000 --> 00:49:12,400 off the scent of a rabbit that the dogs were 630 00:49:12,519 --> 00:49:16,440 chasing it. So the boy grabbed a stinky fish, which 631 00:49:16,639 --> 00:49:19,639 was a red herring, and he dragged it on the 632 00:49:19,639 --> 00:49:21,599 ground and he rubbed it on the trees and all 633 00:49:21,639 --> 00:49:25,000 that stuff to distract the dogs. And so the subtext 634 00:49:25,039 --> 00:49:29,880 there was that journalists had been distracted by the stinky 635 00:49:30,000 --> 00:49:34,079 fish and they had taken a wrong turn toward Napoleon 636 00:49:34,199 --> 00:49:37,840 when they should have been talking about other more important 637 00:49:38,039 --> 00:49:44,000 domestic issues. A herring is a silver colored fish. It 638 00:49:44,119 --> 00:49:47,559 is most abundant in coastal waters off of the North 639 00:49:47,599 --> 00:49:51,639 Pacific and North Atlantic. When you cook a herring on 640 00:49:51,760 --> 00:49:58,199 a smoker, it changes color from silver to a brownish red. 641 00:49:59,119 --> 00:50:03,079 Long before the the invention of refrigeration, the process of 642 00:50:03,280 --> 00:50:06,440 smoking meat was one of the ways they would preserve it, 643 00:50:06,679 --> 00:50:13,400 sometimes for months. Effective but also really really smelly, and 644 00:50:13,480 --> 00:50:18,760 the silverfish turned red. Legend said that using the herring 645 00:50:18,840 --> 00:50:22,079 had lots of applications. You could drag the fish on 646 00:50:22,119 --> 00:50:26,079 the ground to train hounds to hunt prey. You could 647 00:50:26,119 --> 00:50:31,119 acclimate horses to intense smells out on the prairie so 648 00:50:31,119 --> 00:50:33,960 they wouldn't get spooked when they were on fox hunts. 649 00:50:34,480 --> 00:50:38,960 Escaped prisoners might cover their tracks with fish smells that 650 00:50:38,960 --> 00:50:43,280 would confuse the dogs. But it was the idiom that 651 00:50:43,480 --> 00:50:46,760 was started by William Cobbitts way back in eighteen oh 652 00:50:46,840 --> 00:50:51,119 seven that became the red herring reference we used today. 653 00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:56,360 The red herring defined as quote a detail or remark 654 00:50:56,679 --> 00:51:03,320 inserted into a discussion, either intense or unintentionally, that side 655 00:51:03,559 --> 00:51:08,920 tracks the discussion. So if you hear something that sounds 656 00:51:09,079 --> 00:51:15,800 like misdirection and your brain suspects an inappropriate detour, you 657 00:51:15,960 --> 00:51:28,119 might have just sniffed out a red herring. We humans 658 00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:32,719 have long wondered what happens when our dogs stare at us, 659 00:51:32,880 --> 00:51:37,519 or tilt their heads or bark and wine, even dream. 660 00:51:38,199 --> 00:51:42,039 Sometimes we can into it what our fairy friends want 661 00:51:42,159 --> 00:51:45,119 or need. It's time for dinner, they want a snack, 662 00:51:45,360 --> 00:51:49,440 or a walk, a car ride. Maybe they are communicating 663 00:51:49,599 --> 00:51:55,000 discomfort that needs medical care. But do our dogs love 664 00:51:55,119 --> 00:51:59,119 us the way we think they love us? Or do 665 00:51:59,159 --> 00:52:02,960 they really of what we do for them, especially when 666 00:52:02,960 --> 00:52:08,519 it comes to food. Well this became a question for science, 667 00:52:08,920 --> 00:52:14,400 and in twenty seventeen, doctor Gregory Burns, a neuroscientist at 668 00:52:14,519 --> 00:52:20,360 Emery University in Atlanta, decided to find out. His experiment 669 00:52:20,440 --> 00:52:29,599 would include dogs, treats, lovely words, and an MRI machine. Now, 670 00:52:29,639 --> 00:52:32,239 if you are picturing a dog tied to a bed 671 00:52:32,320 --> 00:52:37,400 while one hundred and thirty decibels of vibrating magnetic coils 672 00:52:37,639 --> 00:52:42,679 blast into their sensitive ears, relax. The whole process was 673 00:52:42,800 --> 00:52:48,360 safe and comfortable and pretty ingenious. Doctor Burns got the 674 00:52:48,480 --> 00:52:51,880 idea at the strangest time. It was just after the 675 00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:55,599 Navy seals had dropped out of their helicopters and had 676 00:52:55,719 --> 00:53:00,360 killed Osama bin Laden. Part of that sealed team was 677 00:53:00,480 --> 00:53:05,360 a canine, a dog named Cairo. Cairo had leapt out 678 00:53:05,360 --> 00:53:10,000 of the chopper alongside his humans, and Doctor Burns thought 679 00:53:10,039 --> 00:53:14,280 to himself, man, those choppers are incredibly loud. If they 680 00:53:14,320 --> 00:53:18,239 can train a dog to ride a helicopter, maybe I 681 00:53:18,400 --> 00:53:23,360 could train a dog to sit inside an MRI machine 682 00:53:23,400 --> 00:53:28,199 for what goal? Because doctor Burns was hoping to literally 683 00:53:28,440 --> 00:53:33,880 read a dog's mind. MRI scans have long been used 684 00:53:33,880 --> 00:53:38,280 to detect activity in human brains. We can see emotional 685 00:53:38,400 --> 00:53:43,760 processes firing up based on various stimuli. Of course, humans 686 00:53:43,840 --> 00:53:47,639 go through the machine with ear protection and using wraps 687 00:53:47,639 --> 00:53:51,079 and gauze and fabric and other things. Ear protection would 688 00:53:51,119 --> 00:53:55,880 be provided for any dog put inside the machine. Doctor 689 00:53:55,920 --> 00:54:00,760 Burns built an MRI simulator in his own basement. He 690 00:54:00,880 --> 00:54:05,039 purposefully made it noisy. It was shaped like the real thing, 691 00:54:05,159 --> 00:54:07,719 with the big disc and then the bed that slides 692 00:54:07,840 --> 00:54:13,960 inside of it. His family terrier CALLI, was slowly acclimated 693 00:54:14,079 --> 00:54:18,239 to it. Those practice sessions went on for three months, 694 00:54:18,800 --> 00:54:22,119 and then doctor Burns did a kind of casting call 695 00:54:22,239 --> 00:54:27,159 for volunteers or I guess more accurately dog owners who 696 00:54:27,199 --> 00:54:32,079 were volunteering their own pets, but many were appropriate for 697 00:54:32,199 --> 00:54:36,559 the experiment. They did very well with the conditions, and 698 00:54:36,679 --> 00:54:41,159 so the tests began. No drugs were ever used on 699 00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:44,519 these dogs. They were never tied down. They could get 700 00:54:44,679 --> 00:54:48,920 up and walk away at any moment. These tests were 701 00:54:49,079 --> 00:54:55,119 humanely done by responsible dog lovers. One of the big 702 00:54:55,280 --> 00:55:00,280 questions for the scanner was do dogs love us more 703 00:55:00,320 --> 00:55:05,000 than they love food? Or do they fake love because 704 00:55:05,039 --> 00:55:08,480 they want food? Or maybe we just come in second 705 00:55:08,800 --> 00:55:13,519 in the love hierarchy. To answer the question, dogs were 706 00:55:13,559 --> 00:55:18,480 placed in an MRI machine. They were resting comfortably relaxed, 707 00:55:18,599 --> 00:55:24,079 their ears bound and protected, and researchers would alternate two 708 00:55:24,119 --> 00:55:29,599 different things, either food or praise. The food was a 709 00:55:29,679 --> 00:55:35,920 doggy favorite, hot dogs. The praise was what you might expect, 710 00:55:36,199 --> 00:55:39,159 probably what most of us do with our own dogs 711 00:55:39,199 --> 00:55:43,480 at home. You know what, a good puppy, sweet little baby, 712 00:55:43,559 --> 00:55:46,760 You're doing so good. Who's the best boy, Who's the 713 00:55:46,960 --> 00:55:50,199 best girl? Daddy loves you so much? That kind of thing. 714 00:55:50,280 --> 00:55:53,559 By the way, in my humble opinion, this is the 715 00:55:53,639 --> 00:55:57,719 only way to speak to dogs. Anyone who does not 716 00:55:57,880 --> 00:56:02,079 babble like an idiot is probably a sociopath who should 717 00:56:02,119 --> 00:56:06,519 be avoided at all costs. But I digress. Back to 718 00:56:06,559 --> 00:56:11,320 the experiment, Doctor Burns and his team discovered some fascinating 719 00:56:11,440 --> 00:56:16,840 stuff like dogs have dedicated parts of their brains just 720 00:56:17,239 --> 00:56:22,360 for recognizing faces. Faces are a critical part of how 721 00:56:22,480 --> 00:56:28,000 dogs interact with the world. Scientists also discovered that certain 722 00:56:28,119 --> 00:56:33,000 dog brains are more prone to fear and anxiety from birth. 723 00:56:33,519 --> 00:56:37,760 This makes them much more sensitive, much more appropriate to 724 00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:43,280 calmer environments, and a bad choice for chaotic ones, certainly 725 00:56:43,360 --> 00:56:47,760 not appropriate as service dogs. That information might help us 726 00:56:47,840 --> 00:56:53,119 better rehabilitate shelter dogs who have been traumatized by abandonment 727 00:56:53,239 --> 00:56:56,920 than abuse. But if you are still waiting to find 728 00:56:56,960 --> 00:57:01,960 out if Daisy the snuggling golden Doodle really means it, 729 00:57:02,760 --> 00:57:05,800 you will be pleased to know that the majority of 730 00:57:05,920 --> 00:57:13,000 dogs responded to food and praise equally, almost straight down 731 00:57:13,199 --> 00:57:18,960 the middle. Pleasure was pleasure, Goodness was goodness, and flavor 732 00:57:19,000 --> 00:57:22,559 on the tongue was on par with sweet words to 733 00:57:22,679 --> 00:57:26,159 the ears. In fact, and I know you'll be glad 734 00:57:26,199 --> 00:57:29,800 to hear this. Of the small percentage of canines that 735 00:57:30,039 --> 00:57:35,960 warn't fifty to fifty, those dogs preferred you and me 736 00:57:37,280 --> 00:57:43,039 love language, sweet words spoken in a sweet cadence to 737 00:57:43,159 --> 00:57:49,519 our sweet little furry babies. They preferred us over those 738 00:57:49,719 --> 00:57:54,960 meaty treats. Doesn't that feel good? Now, go hug your dog, 739 00:57:55,400 --> 00:58:00,320 or your cat or alpaca, you know, your hand, amster, 740 00:58:00,400 --> 00:58:04,480 your chicken, whatever, Go hug your whoever it is or 741 00:58:04,519 --> 00:58:08,840 whatever it is. Go and get some self care time. 742 00:58:09,039 --> 00:58:12,239 I hope today has been kind of a nice reprieve, 743 00:58:12,360 --> 00:58:16,559 but I'm serious, take some time prioritize you and your 744 00:58:16,639 --> 00:58:19,519 mental health. You're not going to fix the world in 745 00:58:19,559 --> 00:58:21,960 a day, and neither am I. We got to take 746 00:58:21,960 --> 00:58:27,000 a little time, decompress and get ready for the next 747 00:58:27,119 --> 00:58:29,920 day and the next fights ahead. Okay, it's been so 748 00:58:30,079 --> 00:58:33,320 much fun today. Thank you for listening. Take care, I'll 749 00:58:33,320 --> 00:58:33,840 see you later. 750 00:58:34,320 --> 00:58:37,880 Speaker 1: Follow The Thinking Atheist on Facebook and Twitter for a 751 00:58:37,920 --> 00:58:41,519 complete archive of podcasts and videos, products like mugs and 752 00:58:41,559 --> 00:58:45,239 t shirts featuring the Thinking Atheist logo, links to atheist 753 00:58:45,280 --> 00:58:48,960 pages and resources, and details on upcoming free thought events 754 00:58:48,960 --> 00:58:55,760 and conventions. Log onto our website, The Thinkingatheist dot com.